THE WISDOM OF THE BEGUINES: THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF A MEDIEVAL WOMEN'S MOVEMENT. by Swan, Laura - 2016

Golden Bridge, New York: BlueBridge, 2016. 202 pp, 8 1/4" H. "The beguines began to form in various parts of Europe over eight hundred years ago. Beguines were laywomen, not nuns, and they did not live in monasteries. They practiced a remarkable way of living independently, and they were never a religious order or a formalized movement. But there were common elements that these medieval women shared across Europe, including their visionary spirituality, their unusual business acumen, and their courageous commitment to the poor and sick. Beguines were essentially self-defined, in opposition to the many attempts to control and define them. They lived by themselves or in communities called beguinages, which could be single homes for just a few women or, as in Brugge, Brussels, and Amsterdam, walled-in rows of houses where hundreds of beguines lived together - a village of women within a medieval town or city. Among the beguines were celebrated spiritual writers and mystics, including Mechthild of Magdeburg, Beatrijs of Nazareth, Hadewijch, and Marguerite Porete - who was condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake in Paris in 1310. She was not the only beguine suspected of heresey, and often politics were the driving force behind such charges. The beguines, across the centuries, have left us a great legacy." Contents: Introduction; Who were the Beguines?; Beguines Across Europe; The Beguinage; Beguine Ministries; Beguine Spirituality; Beguine Compassion; Beguines as Preachers and Performers; Literary Beguines; Were Beguines Heretics?; Conclusion. Interior - an area of progressively more wrinkling at the top corner of approx. page 165 to the end of the book, a few other pages have a very small corner crease, otherwise clean and tight with no other ownership marks. Exterior - soft creasing at the top corner of the rear cover, small crease at the bottom corner of the rear cover, slight curl-up at the fore-edge of the front cover.. Not Signed. Third Printing. Soft Cover. Very Good -.